Written Answers Monday 11 December 2006

Scottish Executive

Alcohol Misuse

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to gather data on the number of clients undergoing treatment for alcohol problems, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) NHS board.

Lewis Macdonald: Local alcohol and drug action teams (ADATs) have responsibility for assessing, planning and delivering alcohol services, including the collection of information about local need and service capacity. Each ADAT is required to submit a Corporate Action Plan to the Executive which includes information on the number of people in contact with alcohol services in the local area.

  At national level, the Executive is funding a study which will estimate the number of people drinking at harmful levels and chart the availability of treatment services in their local area.

British Sign Language

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much Objective One funding it has received for programmes aimed at increasing the number of British Sign Language interpreters.

Allan Wilson: In Scotland, Structural Funds are a significant source of European Union funding. Their aim is to reduce economic and social disparities between regions across Europe. Projects access this funding through a bidding system within the appropriate Scottish Structural Funds Programme.

  In the Highlands and Islands Special Transitional Programme (formerly an Objective One Programme area) two projects have been funded to help raise awareness of sign language.

  

 Project
 Organisation
 Total Funding


 Deaf Communication project
 Highland Council
£324,915


 Deaf Awareness Project 
 Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC)
£37,190



  In the European Social Fund that applies in the remainder of Scotland (an Objective 3 Programme area) a number of projects have allowed at least one beneficiary in each project to gain a qualification in sign language.

  

 Project
 Organisation
 Total Funding


 Lead East
 Lead Scotland
£103,535


 Routes to Employment for Long-Term Unemployed People
 Scottish Enterprise Glasgow
£1,500,630


 Launchpad
 Stirling Council
£64,221


 Joined Up New Deal
 Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council
£176,420


 Launchpad (SIP)
 Inverclyde Community Development Trust
£25,250



  Additionally, the Objective 3 Programme has also funded projects from the British Deaf Association and Royal National Institute for the Deaf, however these projects were training individuals with hearing impairment for various types of work, rather than training teachers in this area.

Energy

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with (a) energy companies and (b) the UK Government regarding the equalisation of prepayment meter tariffs with standard credit tariffs and the end of the practice of backdating price increases when meters are recalibrated.

Malcolm Chisholm: Regulation of energy supply companies is a matter for Ofgem. However, I raised the issue of pre-payment meter disparity when I met with representatives of Scottish Gas, Scottish and Southern Energy and ScottishPower recently.

  I intend to raise this matter at the next meeting of the UK wide Ministerial Group on Fuel Poverty which is expected to be held early 2007. Additionally, my officials are in regular dialogue with colleagues in Ofgem and Whitehall departments.

European Funding

Ms Maureen Watt (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which ministers have met local authority representatives to discuss European structural funds in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

Allan Wilson: Ministers have discussed current, previous and new Structural Funds Programmes with a number of stakeholders, including local authorities and COSLA. A detailed breakdown of meetings by individual local authority is not available.

Ferry Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any other instances where a European state owns, or commissions the building of, vessels subject to the 1992 Maritime Cabotage Regulations and state aid rules, as in the case of the CalMac network.

Tavish Scott: The research commissioned by the Scottish Executive on ferry services in other European Union countries (see Research and Advice on Risk Management in Relation to the Subsidy of Ferry Services – Deliverable 1: Factual Summary of EU Member States , published by the Scottish Executive in 2005 – Bib. number 37557) suggested that there were three other countries within the European Union, namely, Finland, Malta and Sweden, where vessels delivering internal ferry services are owned by national or local government or publicly owned companies.

Finance

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it first learned of the Farepak collapse.

Allan Wilson: The Executive learned of the Farepak collapse when the administration was made public. My officials then made contact with the Department of Trade and Industry to try and get formal details.

Finance

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Halifax Bank of Scotland regarding the Farepak collapse.

Allan Wilson: My officials have been in contact with Halifax Bank of Scotland on a few occasions regarding the Farepak collapse.

Flood Prevention

Nora Radcliffe (Gordon) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-16149 by Lewis Macdonald on 5 May 2005 and S2W-25945 by Rhona Brankin on 1 June 2006, when it will publish a public consultation on the definition and principles of sustainable flood management.

Rhona Brankin: The Flooding Issues Advisory Committee (FIAC) has been advising the Executive on how to define sustainable flood management. A public consultation was planned for summer 2006. Preparation work on the consultation paper has taken longer than expected with the result that consultation has been delayed into 2007. The delay has, however, allowed us time to arrange for interactive workshops to take place during the consultation period. In the meantime, further information on the advice given to the Executive by FIAC on sustainable flood management is available in the FIAC paper What is sustainable flood management? which can be found on the FIAC website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/1223/0028633.pdf .

Housing

Mr Bruce McFee (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many abandonment orders served on tenants of local authority-owned properties have been rescinded in each local authority in each year since 1999.

Malcolm Chisholm: Information is not held centrally on action taken by local authorities under sections 17 and 18 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to secure and take possession of a house let under a Scottish secure tenancy which appears to have been abandoned by the tenant.

Housing

Ms Maureen Watt (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many successful rural home ownership grant applications there have been since the scheme was created, showing the (a) individual, (b) average and (c) total payments made in each year.

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

  Information is only available from 1995-96 onwards showing (a) the number of rural home ownership grants awarded, (b) the average rural home ownership grant awarded, and (c) the total rural home ownership grant awarded. This is provided in the following table:

  

 Financial Year
 Number of Grants Awarded
 Average Grant Awarded
 Total Grant Awarded


 1995-96
 67
£16,330
£1,094,101


 1996-97
 66
£17,919
£1,182,660


 1997-98
 45
£16,610
£747,446


 1998-99
 44
£16,711
£735,298


 1999-2000
 50
£18,234
£911,700


 2000-01
 51
£17,643
£899,805


 2001-02
 55
£20,132
£1,107,287


 2002-03
 64
£19,406
£1,242,000


 2003-04
 83
£23,096
£1,917,000


 2004-05
 118
£25,169
£2,970,000


 2005-06
 87
£25,057
£2,179,949

Housing

Ms Maureen Watt (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for rural home ownership grants have been unsuccessful since the scheme was created and what reasons were given for these rejections.

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

  Communities Scotland does not hold information on the number of applications for rural home ownership grants that have been unsuccessful since the scheme was created. There can be a number of reasons why an application is unsuccessful. These include problems in obtaining land, an applicant’s income being too high or too low, properties being too expensive or in too poor a condition, and overall project costs being too high.

Housing

Ms Maureen Watt (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria Communities Scotland applies when determining whether a rural home ownership grant constitutes good value for money.

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

  Communities Scotland applies the following criteria when determining whether a rural home ownership grant constitutes good value for money.

  The components making up the total cost of constructing, purchasing or improving a house (primarily land, building costs and professional fees) are assessed against various cost benchmarks to make sure that they represent good value for money. The completed house should also comply with statutory design and construction standards, and be appropriate to the size of the applicant’s household.

  The level of grant required is determined by assessing the level of mortgage that an applicant can support and any other income or savings that an applicant has. The level of mortgage funding plus any other financial contributions, including awards from other sources, is then assessed in relation to the total cost of providing the house. After determining any other assistance, a rural home ownership grant will not normally exceed 33 per cent of the total cost.

Olympic Games

Margo MacDonald (Lothians) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive what the impact will be on resources for the development of community and elite sport participation in Scotland of the higher than predicted cost of the London Olympics.

Patricia Ferguson: The UK Government made it clear in 2003 that it would plan to be the ultimate guarantor of Olympic funding needs should the shortfall between Olympic costs and revenues exceed £2.075 billion. The Government stated that it expected to discharge that responsibility in a sharing arrangement to be agreed as appropriate with the Mayor of London and through seeking additional National Lottery funding in amounts to be agreed at the time. The UK Government is now in discussion with the mayor about how the additional costs will be met.

  Scottish ministers will continue to engage constructively with Department for Culture Media and Sport Ministers on the impact any reduction on lottery funding to sport – and the other good causes - might have in Scotland

Police

Richard Lochhead (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many officers have been deployed on traffic-related duties in each of the last three years, broken down by police force and also expressed (a) as a ratio of all police officers and (b) on a per capita basis in each police force area and showing year-on-year changes.

Cathy Jamieson: This information is not held centrally and is an operational matter for individual chief constables.

Public Transport

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many rail vehicles (a) were delivered in 2006 and (b) are due to be delivered in each year to 2012, broken down by manufacturer.

Tavish Scott: (a) There were no rail vehicles delivered for the ScotRail Franchise during 2006.

  (b) A procurement plan is in progress to deliver fleets of new rolling stock for a range of major projects and passenger growth initiatives from 2009 onwards.

  Bids have been received from a number of manufacturers to supply trams for Edinburgh in time for use in 2010.

  At this time no decision has been made on the eventual suppliers/manufacturers nor the final quantities required, but Transport Scotland will ensure that sufficient vehicles are in place to meet the predicted capacity requirements.

  The procurement process for heavy rail vehicles is being carried out with the co-operation of the franchise operator, First ScotRail, in consultation with Transport Scotland, commencing 2007.

  Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE) is responsible for the procurement of Edinburgh trams.

Rail Network

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what total value of rolling stock (a) was delivered in each year since 1999 and (b) is due to be delivered in each year to 2012, broken down by manufacturer.

Tavish Scott: (a) The total value of the rolling stock is subject to the terms of contracts between the Franchisee and the Rolling Stock companies, and the values attributed to these in the Franchise agreement, are commercially confidential.

  (b) A procurement plan is in progress to deliver fleets of new rolling stock for a range of major projects and passenger growth initiatives from 2009 onwards.

  At this time the total value of rolling stock provision in each year has not been fully determined, nor eventual suppliers/manufacturers selected, but Transport Scotland will ensure that sufficient vehicles are in place to meet the predicted capacity requirements.

  The procurement process will be carried out with the co-operation of the franchise operator, First ScotRail, in consultation with Transport Scotland, commencing 2007.

Taxation

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made representations to Her Majesty’s Government about increasing the level of duty on high-alcohol-by-volume ciders in line with that on beer and, if so, what these representations were and what response was received.

Lewis Macdonald: The Executive has not made any such formal representations.

Taxation

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made representations to Her Majesty’s Government about duty levels on fortified wines and, if so, what these representations were and what response was received.

Lewis Macdonald: The Executive has not made any such representations.